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This potted chicken recipe is made with an Indian curry style sauce that flavors the chicken while keeping it juicy. It’s an easy one-pot dish that can be served with bread or rice or store-bought naan.

The chicken is cooked whole. First, it’s browned on all sides which takes about six minutes. Then it is set aside and the onions, ginger and garlic are sautéed. When the onion is soft, the Indian seasonings are added: turmeric, garam masala, and salt. Mix the seasoning through to combine with the onion. It will be a consistency of paste.

Then, add the chicken stock and light coconut milk, cinnamon stick and carrots and mix through. Carrots are added to this dish for to round out the dish and serve as a flavoring agent. Add the chicken back to the pot.

The sauce will not cover the chicken so drizzle the sauce on top. Place pot in oven and cook and hour and a half. Make sure to turn the chicken every 30 minutes or baste often while it is cooking.

Potted Chicken Indian Curry Style

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, about 4-5 pounds

1.5 cups low sodium chicken stock

1 can light coconut milk

1.5 tablespoons turmeric

1.5 tablespoons garam masala

3 garlic cloves, grated

I onion chopped

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated

1 cinnamon stick

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 carrots peeled and sliced on the diagonal

Preheat oven to 375°. In a Dutch oven, heat oil until hot. Place chicken breast side down and brown for 2 minutes. Turn chicken for breast side uu for 2 minutes. Then place chicken on one side for 1 minute and then the other side for 1 minute. Remove chicken from pot.

Add onion, garlic and ginger and sauté until soft, about 2 minutes. Add turmeric, garam masala and salt and heat through for 1 minute. Add light coconut milk and chicken stock, carrots and cinnamon stick, and mix through. Add chicken back to pot. Sauce will not cover. Pour some sauce on top of chicken. Cover pot and an hour and a half, turning chicken every 30 minutes.

Sometimes at the end of a meal you just need something sweet. This recipe comes in time for Valentine’s Day, combining two top 10 aphrodisiac foods bananas and chocolate, making for a perfect ending for a romantic dinner. Plus it comes without the guilt, as this a dairy-free, gluten-free chocolate banana mousse.

You can make this mousse for four servings or two large ones, I found myself eating 2 of the four servings as I just wanted a bit more. To make this mousse, slice two bananas length-wise and place on a cookie sheet sliced side up and broil for six-seven minutes. The bananas will be a bit browned. Turn them over and broil for three minutes on the other side. Set aside.

In a mixer on high speed, whip egg whites with teaspoon of salt until stiff peaks form. Set aside and then add the egg yolks to the mixing bowl with sugar and beat until the color is a light pale yellow. Add the bananas and cocoa powder to the egg yolks and mix through. Add the chocolate chips and mix through. Then, fold in the egg whites and pour mixture into ramekins. Bake in a water bath for 30 minutes to prevent the mousse from burning and help it cook evenly.

Slice bananas lengthwise and broil sliced side up for 6-7 minutes on one side until they are a bit browned. Turn over and broil for 3 minutes on the other side. Set aside. Preheat oven to 360°. In a mixer, whip egg whites with teaspoon of salt on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes, and set aside. Add the egg yolks to the emptied mixing bowl along with the sugar and beat until light pale yellow, about 3 minutes. Add bananas and cocoa powder and mix through. Add chocolate chips and mix through. Then fold in the egg whites and pour mixture into 4, 6 oz ramekins or 2, 10 oz ramekins. Place ramekins in roasting pan or Pyrex pan and add water halfway up the ramekins. Bake for 30 minutes. Garnish with powdered sugar, optional.

This white chili with chicken recipe is packed with flavor but has no heat so it is great for those who don’t like spicy foods. In fact, I came up with this recipe after a friend of mine asked me for a chili recipe that her kids would like. This one has plenty of flavor without the kick. And, it cooks up pretty quickly – 30 minutes, plus time for chopping, making it an easy weeknight family meal. It also freezes quite well making it perfect for a make-ahead dinner plan.

No tomatoes or tomato sauce are included in white chili, hence the color… or lack thereof. This recipe calls for ground chicken thighs, which provide enough fat to keep the meat flavorful and moist. Poblano peppers and Anaheim peppers add a nice touch of flavor without being spicy. Cumin and chili powder provide the main chili flavorings without the heat.

To make the chili, add peppers, onion and garlic to a pot with the EVOO and sauté for four minutes. Add ground chicken stir to mix all ingredients through and break up the chicken so it is in small pieces rather than chunks. Cook for four minutes.

White beans are used instead of the traditional red kidney beans, and a cup of corn helps round out the heartiness of the chili. Low sodium chicken stock serves as the liquid and masa harina is used at the end for thickening. The chili cooks in just 30 minutes in total.

Grated Monterey Jack cheese works as a nice complement, yet, the chili is flavorful enough that it doesn’t need really need it.

White Chili With Chicken

Ingredients:

2 lb ground chicken thighs

2 large poblano peppers – (about ¾ lb in weight)11oz

4 Anaheim peppers – 11oz

3 garlic cloves

1 onion

3 tbls EVOO

1.5 cups frozen corn, defrosted

1 15 oz can white beans, such as Northern

4 cups chicken stock, low sodium

2 teaspoons cumin

2.5 teaspoons chili powder

2.5 teaspoons kosher salt

Juice of 2 limes

2 tablespoons masa harina

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional)

Remove stems and seeds from peppers and dice. Dice onion and mince garlic. Add peppers, onion and garlic to pot with the EVOO and sauté for four minutes. Add ground chicken and cook for four minutes, with constant mixing to help break up the chicken. Then add the stock, beans, corn, chili powder, cumin, salt, and lime juice. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook 25 minutes. Mix the masa with 1/2 cup cooking liquid and mix through until masa is absorbed and add back to pot along with cilantro and mix through. Simmer, covered for five minutes. Serve with grated Monterey Jack cheese, optional.

As we start off the New Year, eating healthy makes it on to most people’s resolution list, and making an effort to eating plenty of fish is a great way to keep this resolution! Fish offers high protein at fewer calories than other animal proteins and many great health benefits. Research, published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, suggests that eating oily fish once or twice a week may increase your lifespan. Fish, high in omega-3 fats, such as salmon, has been shown to reduce heart disease.

To help with your diet planning, here are four fish recipes featured on this blog for you to try this year:

Remember that famous Seinfeld episode with the Soup Nazi? Well, he really did exist and when I was working for Hearst Magazines on West 57th Street back in the late 80’s/early 90’s I would often wait on the long lines in the bitter cold on West 55th Street waiting for his outstanding soups, which were accompanied by bread and butter and a side of fruit. His were not your typical soups. While he did have chicken noodle and other traditional soups, he also served hearty meal dishes-turned soup like Eggplant Parmesan soup. And yes, he was curt, and if you took to long to order when your turn finally came, you did see his brusque demeanor. Regardless, it was well worth the wait.

With the Soup Nazi as my inspiration, I created my own version of this soup that satisfies my craving for eggplant parmesan and my need to watch my diet. To prepare the eggplant, slice the eggplants cross wise about 1/2″ thickness then cut each round into 1/2″ dice. Add diced eggplant, sprinkled with salt to a colander and let sit for about an hour. This will help take out the bitterness of the eggplant and remove some of the water in the process.

When the eggplant is ready, add onion, parsley, basil and garlic into the base of a food processor and process until fine. Heat oil in heavy pot, add onion herb mixture and sauté 3 minutes. Then dry the eggplant with paper towels to remove the excess water and add the eggplant to pot and sauté 3 more minutes.

Canned San Marzano tomatoes blend with low sodium chicken broth to make the base of this soup. You can easily substitute vegetable broth for vegetarian dish. I use chicken broth because I like the flavor more. When adding the tomatoes, cut them cross-wise in thirds using a knife to help break them down into smaller pieces when cooking. After you add the broth and tomatoes to the pot, add the parmesan cheese rind, bay leaves, crushed red paper flakes, and remaining salt. Simmer the soup, covered, for 30 minutes.

Really fresh mozzarella cheese is key for making this dish come together. You can buy fresh mozzarella in any grocery store; the best ones come with some liquid in the packaging. Dice the parmesan cheese into ¼” pieces and when the soup is ready, drop the pieces of mozzarella separately into the simmering broth to keep it all from clumping together. Some of the pieces of cheese will clump together so use a spoon to mix it through and separate the cheese as best as you can. Let it simmer for 3 minutes and discard the bay leaves and cheese rind before serving. Garnish with chopped basil.

Cut eggplants cross wise about 1/2″ thickness then cut each round into 1/2″ dice. Put diced eggplant into a colander, sprinkling with kosher salt using about 1/2-3/4 tablespoon of salt, and let sit for about an hour. Wipe moisture off eggplant using paper towels.

When entertaining for a crowd, cocktail-size empanadas are a great finger food to serve. You can stuff them with all sorts of fillings and you can make a batch ahead of time, freeze them, and re-heat them straight from the freezer when you’re ready to serve. These mushroom empanadas are baked, not fried. The dough recipe comes from Claire Archibald of Café Azul in Portland, Oregon as written up on Epicurious.com.

It’s a great pastry dough recipe that is really easy to make. Just mix the flour, salt, butter in a mixer with a dough hook then beat one egg with one tablespoon of Champagne vinegar, or I used rose’ wine vinegar which is lighter than red wine vinegar but not as a expensive as Champagne vinegar, and fill the rest of the cup with cold water, then add to the dough and mix through. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for an hour. You will use about 2/3 of the dough for this recipe. The remaining dough can be frozen.

While the dough is chilling, you can make the mushroom filling. This recipe call for portabella and shiitake mushrooms, for a full bodied-mushroom flavor. Shallots, sherry, and a hint of cream bring out the full flavor without taking away from the mushroom taste. Add the shallots and parsley to a food processor and process until the shallots are fine. Remove the mixture and then add the mushrooms and process until fine. Heat oil in a pot and add the shallot-parsley mixture and a grated garlic and sauté for 3 minutes until the shallots are translucent. Add the mushrooms, salt, pepper, cayenne to the shallots, mix through and cook for 3 minutes. Add sherry, mix through and cook for 2 minutes, then add cream, mix through and cook for 1 minute. Remove mixture from heat and let cool.

Queso fresco is a Mexican cheese that is very mild in flavor and crumbly in texture. It pairs very well with the mushroom mixture in these empanadas. To grate the cheese, use a course grater but know that some of the cheese will fall apart and crumble as you’re grating. This is perfectly fine and usable in the empanadas.

When the dough is chilled, cut it into sixths so it is easy to manage. Take one sixth and roll out dough into a thin layer – no more than 1/8” in thickness. Keep the remaining dough in the refrigerator until ready to use. Using a 2.75” diameter cookie ring, cut circles out of the dough, reusing the scraps around the circles for additional empanadas.

To fill the empanada, use a regular teaspoon – not a measuring teaspoon – for portioning out the mushroom mixture and place mixture in center of disc. Be careful to not overstuff the empanada; a little filling goes a long way. Add a bit of grated cheese on top. To seal, press the edges of one side and work around the half-moon shape to the other side. Then, using the back of a fork, press the tongs onto the edges of the empanada to crimp, turn the empanada over and repeat the crimping. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and repeat the process.

Brush the empanadas with the egg wash and top with a bit of salt before baking at 400° for about 23 minutes – might be 25 minutes depending on your oven. The cooked empanadas can be frozen. To reheat, taken them directly from the freezer and place in a pre-heated 350° oven for 10 minutes.

Make dough by adding flour, salt and butter to a mixer with a dough hook and mix through until the dough forms. Then beat one egg and one tablespoon of vinegar and fill the rest of the cup with water, then and it to the dough and mix through. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for at least an hour and up until 6 hours.

For the filling, add shallots and parsley to a food processor and process until the shallots are fine. Remove the mixture and then add the mushrooms and process until fine. Heat oil in a pot and add the shallot-parsley mixture and garlic and sauté for 3 minutes until the shallots are translucent. Add the mushrooms, salt, pepper, cayenne to the shallots, mix through and cook for 3 minutes. Add sherry, mix through and cook for 2 minutes, then add cream, mix through and cook for 1 minute. Remove mixture from heat and let cool. In a separate bowl, grate the cheese.

When the dough is chilled, cut it into sixths so it is easy to manage. Take one sixth and roll out dough into a thin layer – no more than 1/8” in thickness. Keep the remaining dough in the refrigerator until ready to use. Using a 2.75” diameter cookie ring, cut circles out of the dough, reusing the scraps around the circles for additional empanadas.

To fill the empanada, use a regular teaspoon – not a measuring teaspoon – for portioning out the mushroom mixture and place mixture in center of disc. Add a bit of grated cheese on top. To seal, press the edges of one side and work around the half-moon shape to the other side. Be careful to not overstuff the empanada; a little filling goes a long way. Then, using the back of a fork, press the tongs onto the edges of the empanada to crimp, turn the empanada over and repeat the crimping. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and repeat the process.

Brush the empanadas with the egg wash and top with a bit of salt before baking at 400° for about 23 minutes until lightly browned on top. You might need to cook 25 minutes depending on your oven.

These baked potato pancakes with chard are a healthier version of potato latkes, as they use a fraction of the oil, are gluten-free, and are mixed with nutritional powerhouse Swiss Chard. They are baked in non-stick muffin pans so the texture is not as crispy as traditional latkes. They are more dense and more like pancakes, however, they have some crispiness on the outer layer, but they are definitely softer in the inside. The flavor however is terrific, making this lower-fat version well worth it.

I use green chard for this recipe as I like the coloring better, but feel free to play with rainbow chard as well. The pancakes pair well with a dollop or sour cream on top. To make the pancakes, grate the potatoes – I use russet as they are starchier than other potatoes and hold up well. Make sure to drain the potatoes in a colander while you’re prepping the rest of the ingredients and squeeze the excess water using paper towels before adding the potatoes to the chard.

In a food processor, add the chard and scallions and process until the vegetables are finely chopped. Add them to a bowl along with the drained potatoes. Add one egg, the potato starch, and salt and pepper to the bowl and mix through.

Using a pastry brush, brush the oil into the muffin tins about halfway high. Add about two tablespoons of the mixture to each muffin round and pat down.Make sure to squeeze out the excess water before adding the mixture to the muffin cups and do not over stuff, err on teh side of less than more. Place muffin tins into a 400° oven and cook for 10 minutes.

Remove muffin tins from oven and turn the pancakes over. The pancakes may stick a bit so use a knife and cut around the edges before turning. Place the muffin tins back into the oven for another 10 minutes. Repeat this step one more time with the last return to the oven being for only 5 minutes. Serve with sour cream on the side.

Baked Potato Pancakes with Chard

Ingredients:

2 large russet potatoes, about 2 lbs in weight, peeled and grated

6 full scallions end cut off -about 2.5 oz

1/2 lb chard – white stems removed

1 tablespoon potato starch

1 egg

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 tablespoon pepper

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Grate the potatoes and drain the potatoes in a colander. In a food processor, add the chard and scallions and process until the vegetables are finely chopped, and add them to a bowl. Squeeze the excess water out of the potatoes using paper towels and add them to the chard mixture. Add the egg, the potato starch, and salt and pepper to the bowl and mix through.

Using a pastry brush, brush the oil into the muffin tins about halfway high. Add about two tablespoons of the mixture to each muffin round and pat down. Place muffin tins into a 400° oven and cook for 10 minutes. Remove muffin tines from oven and turn the pancakes over and place back into the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove the muffin tins from the oven and once again flip the pancakes and place back in the oven for the final 5 minutes. Serve with sour cream on the side.

Lace Florentine cookies filled with chocolate are a one of my favorite cookies. The caramel flavor is sweet and well, a little bit addictive. It’s hard to eat just one. This version of the cookie is made gluten-free using a mix of pulverized oats and almond meal to combine with a homemade caramel sauce that forms a batter. I have used steel-cut oats and Quaker oats and both work fine. I would not recommend using quick cooking oats, as the oats are thinner and the quantity might not hold up for the batter.

To make the batter, add the oats to a food processor and process until it looks like a meal, about 1-2 minutes. Add to a large bowl along with the almond meal and salt. In a heavy saucepan add the butter, brown sugar, sugar and cream until the butter is melted and ingredients are mixed through. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly, until the sides start to bubble. Make sure the entire pot does not bubble or the caramel will not work well for the batter. When the sides start to bubble, turn of the heat and add the vanilla extract and mix through. The alcohol in the extract will cause the mixture to bubble a bit which is fine. Pour the hot caramel into the dry ingredients and mix through.

Pour the hot caramel into the dry ingredients and mix through. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350° and place two racks in the oven. When the batter is cool enough to handle spoon 1-teaspoon size balls on a baking sheet leaving plenty of room (about 3 inches) for the cookies to spread out while cooking. I do 6 cookies on a sheet and cook 2 sheets at a time.

The sheet placed on the lower rack cooks faster than the upper rack so after 4 minutes, move the top baking sheet to the lower rack and the bottom baking sheet to the upper rack and bake for another 4 minutes. 8 minutes should be enough for the cookies to get golden brown. If your oven is a bit slower then keep the cookies in for 10 minutes but make sure they do not burn.

When you take the cookies out of the oven, some of them may have run into each other. Use a knife and gently separate the batter. The cookies are very amenable while they are on the hot baking sheet so you can also use the knife to create more perfect shapes if you wish. Remove the cookies on the parchment paper to a cooling rack or cutting boards to cool, they will cool almost immediately once removed from the hot pan. Repeat until batter is finished.

Once all the cookies are baked, heat the chocolate in a double boiler until melted. Pair the cookies up as best as the shapes can match and line them up on parchment paper with the bottom side of the cookie facing up. Spread one of the matched cookies with the chocolate. Since the lace cookies have lots of holes, some of the chocolate will drip the drip through onto the parchment paper. Place the matching cookie on top with the bottom side down on the chocolate. Place the parchment paper with the filled cookies on a baking sheet and place in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to set the chocolate. Repeat with remaining cookies and add them to the tray in the freezer.

When you are done making all the cookies, store the cookies in a freezer-proof bag or container and take them out right before serving. This will keep he chocolate form melting through the cookie.

Gluten-Free Lace Florentine Cookies

Ingredients:

½ cup oats (not instant) processed to form a meal

½ cup almond meal

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup sugar

5 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons heavy cream

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup good quality semisweet chocolate chips – I use Guittard or Tcho

Process oats until fine and add to a large bowl. Add the almond meal and salt and mix through. Melt butter, brown sugar, sugar and cream in a heavy pot over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until almost a boil, when the sides start to bubble but make sure the whole pot does not bubble. Remove from heat, add vanilla extract and mix through, then pour into dry ingredients and mix through to form the batter.

Preheat oven to 350° and place two racks in the oven. Place 1 teaspoon-size balls on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets – 6 on a tray about 3 inches apart. Bake for 4 minutes and rotate baking sheets and cook for another 4 minutes and check for doneness. Bake for 8-10 minutes in total when cookies are golden but not too brown.

Remove the cookies on the parchment paper to a cooling rack or cutting boards to cool. Repeat until batter is finished. Once all the cookies are baked, heat the chocolate in a double boiler until melted. Pair the cookies up as best as the shapes can match and line them up on parchment paper with the bottom side of the cookie facing up. Spread one of the matched cookies with the chocolate. Place the matching cookie on top with the bottom side down on the chocolate. Place the parchment paper with the filled cookies on a baking sheet and place in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to set the chocolate. Repeat with remaining cookies and add them to the tray in the freezer. When you are done making all the cookies, store the cookies in a freezer-proof bag or container and take them out right before serving.

This is a great tasting soup for winter. It blends a lot of great flavors and nutrition in one meal and it freezes really well so you can make it ahead and always have soup on hand to serve. This recipe calls for making the turkey stock from scratch using uncooked turkey. If you have a left over turkey carcass and want to make stock from that, that can work. Alternatively, you can use bought chicken stock.

To make the stock, use a 2-1/4 – 2-1/2 pound half turkey breast with bone in and skin on and ask your butcher for 2 turkey necks. In a large stockpot, add water, onions, carrots celery salt, ground pepper and the turkey. Bring to a simmer, cover pot and let simmer for one hour. I like to make the stock one-day in advance refrigerate it and the skim off the fat before making the soup.

When the stock is done, remove the turkey breast and let cool. Discard all other solids and reserve liquid. Remove the skin from the turkey breast and cut the meat into half-inch pieces Discard the skin and carcass. If you are making the stock one-day ahead reserve the cut turkey in a covered bow or storage bag until you are ready to make the soup.

The key ingredient in this soup is the addition of a Parmesan rind that is about 3” x 2”. As the soup cooks the Parmesan adds a subtle, nutty flavor and depth to the soup and is well balanced by the rosemary. To make the soup, first prepare the beans. While the stock is cooking (or the next day prior to making the soup if you had made the stock one day in advance) add 1 cup of dried white beans to another pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, turn off heat and let stand for one hour. Drain water and reserve beans.

In the pot that was used to pre-cook the beans, add the oil, chopped onion, garlic, rosemary and sauté until the onion is soft – about 4 minutes. Add the reserved stock, beans, Parmesan rind and bay leaves and simmer covered for 50 minutes, until the beans are cooked through. Then add the kale, the diced carrots, and turkey. Mix through and simmer for 15-20 minutes uncovered. Discard bay leaves and Parmesan rind and serve.

To make the stock, add all ingredients to a stockpot, bring to simmer and cook covered for an hour. Remove turkey breast and discard all other solids and reserve stock. Cut turkey into ¾” pieces and discard the skin and carcass. If making one day ahead, reserve the stock and turkey pieces separately. Remove the stock from the refrigerator and skim the fat

Prepare beans using the quick soak method by adding1 cup of dry white beans to a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, turn off heat and let stand for one hour. Drain water and reserve beans.

To make the soup, add the oil, chopped onion, garlic, rosemary and sauté until the onion is soft – about 4 minutes. Add the reserved stock, beans, Parmesan rind and bay leaves and simmer covered for 50 minutes, until the beans are cooked through. Then add the kale, the diced carrots, and turkey. Mix through and simmer for 15-20 minutes uncovered. Discard bay leaves and Parmesan rind and serve.

The best part of buying a bunch of beets is that you get the leafy greens attached to the beets. These beet greens are really flavorful. They have a bit of the earthy taste that you find with beets and a consistency like chard. The only bad thing is that with a bunch of 3-4 beets, you get enough of greens to serve about 2 people. So you need to buy plenty of beets to have enough beet greens for 4 to 6 people, which is why beet greens aren’t the most popular green.

The next time you buy beets, don’t discard the greens, rather sauté them in olive oil and then add one thinly sliced beet to the greens and sauté that for a minute until softened. Season with salt and serve. I used light red beets for this dish. You can easily use golden or dark red beets as well.

Sautéed Beet Greens

Ingredients:

1 bunch beets with greens

1 beet thinly sliced

2 tablespoons EVOO

Kosher salt

Cut beet greens into pieces about 2 wide. Heat EVOO in pan and add greens and sauté until soft, about 2 minutes Add sliced beets and sauté for 1 minute. Season with salt and serve.